Arrows run over Austin and into playoff picture

Recap

A bonus point 24-13 win over Austin Elite on Thursday evening saw the Toronto Arrows jump into third overall with a chance to move up again on Sunday. Glendale, Seattle, and New York are suddenly all behind the Canadian outfit though the latter two have a game at hand.

Toronto controlled the majority of possession and field position but struggled at times to make the final pass in the damp conditions. Handling errors saw scoring opportunities left begging and instead it was Austin who moved out to a 6-0 lead through a pair of Andrés Vilaseca penalty goals.

Not long after the second, the Arrows finally got on the board. With an overlap to the right, Andrew Ferguson instead caught the defense off-guard by taking it to the line himself, and the scrumhalf had the strength to grab the first try, converting his own to give Toronto their first lead.

A sensational try brought the crowd to its feet next. Counter-attacking from his own end, Shawn Windsor probed the left flank and got a one-handed offload away to Leandro Leivas. The Uruguayan winger sped past two and bounced off Soheyl Jaoudat on a 65 meter gallop to the try zone.

With the Arrows pressing for a score early in the second half and on a penalty advantage, Ferguson tried a cheeky left-footed chip over the top. It was half-charged by an Austin player, then deflected back into the hands of a gracious Rob Brouwer who trundled over for the third try.

Juan Echeverría was sent to the bin on the hour mark for repeat team infringements. The Arrows called for the scrum, but instead of going for the pushover they attacked the short side with Kainoa Lloyd squeezing through two defenders to claim the all-important bonus point try.

Austin suffered a blow when Marcelo Torrealba went down just three minutes after coming into the game. It forced Rodrigo Silva to move to scrumhalf with JP Aguirre stepping up to flyhalf. The makeshift backline managed to create one more score as Vilaseca broke through and sent Simon Bienvenu in for a consolation try.

SCORING

TORONTO 24
Tries – A. Ferguson (25′), L. Leivas (32′), R. Brouwer (49′), K. Lloyd (63′)
Cons – A. Ferguson 2/4 (26′, 33′)

AUSTIN 13
Tries – S. Bienvenu (78′)
Cons – Z. Elan-Puttick 1/1 (78′)
Pens – A. Vilaseca 2/3 (4′, 22′)
Yellow cards – J. Echeverría (60′)

TEAMS

TORONTO ARROWS
1 Rob Brouwer (17 Pat Lynott 64′), 2 Steven Ng (16 Jack McRogers 71′), 3 Cole Keith (18 Morgan Mitchell 64′), 4 Josh van Horne (19 Mike Sheppard HT), 5 Paul Ciulini, 6 Marcello Wainwright, 7 John Moonlight, 8 Luke Campbell (20 Peter Milazzo 67′), 9 Andrew Ferguson (21 Riley DiNardo 67′), 10 Patrick Parfrey, 11 Leandro Leivas, 12 Mitch Richardson, 13 Dan Moor (capt.) (22 Spencer Jones 67′), 14 Kainoa Lloyd (23 Avery Oitomen 64′), 15 Shawn Windsor

AUSTIN ELITE
1 LaRome White (18 Phil Hanson 71′), 2 Peter Malcolm (16 Tiaan Erasmus 65′), 3 Mason Pedersen (17 Juan Echeverría 51′), 4 Ronan McCusker (19 Rikus Zwart 51′), 5 Josh Larsen, 6 Kyle Breytenbach, 7 Moe Abdelmonem (20 Dom Bailey 57′), 8 Travis Larsen, 9 Soheyl Jaoudat (21 Marcelo Torrealba 51′ {22 Andrew Suniula 54′}), 10 Rodrigo Silva, 11 Aidan McMullan (23 JP Aguirre 51′), 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Simon Bienvenu, 14 Reece Czarnecki (3 Mason Pedersen 60′-70′), 15 Zinzan Elan-Puttick (capt.)